Reference is made hereby to co-pending application Ser. No. 457,168 filed Jan. 13, 1983 for Honeycomb Seal Structure. In that application the background of the utilization of various types of honeycomb seals is set forth in detail and the art relating to honeycomb seals is exhaustively analyzed.
However, there is not disclosed in that application the apparatus and method of the present application. As is mentioned in the co-pending application, the present practice of fabricating honeycomb seals involves a patchwork construction consisting of subsequently curved pieces of flat honeycomb core. This entails the joining of the pieces and the subsequent machining of the resulting seal member after the patching process, spike welding and brazing of the seal to a supporting structure is accomplished. This machining is an expensive and time-consuming process which, taken in conjunction with the previous assembly of flat core components of the seal, results in the high procurement costs thereof.
To applicant's knowledge, no apparatus for fabricating a circular engine seal of the honeycomb type from a continuous length of pre-formed core strip having male and female nodes is disclosed in the art or has been utilized by honeycomb seal fabricators.